British Prime Minister Tony Blair called him a slug. Oprah labelled him a tough cookie. Even his close friends admit he’s a “massive egotist.”
Now, as the British phone hacking scandal washes up on America’s shores, CNN celebrity host Piers Morgan may be the first trans-Atlantic casualty to be caught in its net.
Amid a flurry of high-profile firings, arrests and resignations, British MPs are calling for his questioning following allegations by a popularIrish political blogger writing as Guido Fawkes. The blog claimed that the former News of the Worldand Daily Mirror editor may have turned a blind eye to phone hacking while heading the Mirror in 2002.
It dates back to a “scoop” that TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson was having an affair with England’s football team manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, which, Fawkes suggests, was the result of hacking into her phone — an allegation the Mirror has denied.
The tabloid’s showbiz reporter James “Scottie” Scott was “listening in to . . . Jonsson’s voicemails when he was flummoxed by messages in her native Swedish,” Fawkes wrote, adding that a Swedish-speaking secretary translated them. “Morgan decided to let ‘3AM girl’ Jessica Callan break the illegally obtained story under her byline in order to try and rid the column of its banal reputation.”
Whatever the source, it scored a bull’s eye. The scoop won a British Press Award, and the once-derided gossip section’s celebrity and notoriety spread.
So did Morgan’s. As Britain’s most famous newspaper editor, he wrote a sensational account of the U.K. tabloid industry, The Insider, containing a virtual blueprint for hacking into phones whose owners have not changed their standard security codes.
“Then,” Morgan wrote, “anyone can call your number and, if you don’t answer, tap in the standard four digit code to hear all your messages.” He added, archly, “I’ll change mine just in case, but it makes me wonder how many public figures and celebrities are aware of this little trick.”
The book also highlighted his working relationship at News of the World with his then deputy, Rebekah Brooks, who was arrested this week in the hacking scandal. Brooks, he said, had joined him in planning to pay 500,000 pounds for an interview with Princess Diana’s lover James Hewitt, if he admitted he had “regularly slept with the future king’s wife.”
This week the usually garrulous 45-year-old Morgan was silent on the current hacking scandal, but maintained innocence.
“It’s a really sad day for British journalism,” he lamented in a TV interview. “What went on was completely indefensible. I’ve only read what everyone else has read and I don’t think we’ve got to the bottom of it yet.”
Like many tabloidistas, Morgan has stepped on a lot of large toes during his British career. And although he also rubbed shoulders with top politicians, few would shed tears over his downfall.
So far the allegations remain in the realm of rumour. But if pressure builds, it won’t be the first time Morgan has landed in hot water, during a career with more ups and downs than a California surfer’s.
Born in bucolic East Sussex, he came on the big-city scene like a comet, talent-spotted by legendary tabloid editor Kelvin MacKenzie of the Sun, while working on suburban newspapers. At 28, he was appointed editor of the mega-tab News of the World — the youngest national newspaper chief in half a century.
But his flamboyant style soon plunged him into controversy.
When he joined the Daily Mirror in 1995, he tangled with Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie, and infuriated the Royal Family by buying an expose from Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, then publishing letters between Diana and Hewitt.
In 2004, he was sacked after the paper published mocked-up photos of British soldiers apparently abusing an Iraqi prisoner: a gaffe the Mirror said was a “calculated and malicious hoax” at their expense.
Undeterred, Morgan tried his hand at reality TV, debuting with a children’s show, and graduating to a judge’s role in Britain’s Got Talent, where he helped to discover singer Susan Boyle. Back in the limelight, he replaced American icon Larry King on CNN, with ratings as turbulent as his career.
“Those days of Larry King softballing you . . . over baby,” said Oprah Winfrey in the daily Independent. “I had to take a hot bath and a couple Anacin after that interview. He’s a tough cookie.”
Now, as the British phone hacking scandal washes up on America’s shores, CNN celebrity host Piers Morgan may be the first trans-Atlantic casualty to be caught in its net.
Amid a flurry of high-profile firings, arrests and resignations, British MPs are calling for his questioning following allegations by a popularIrish political blogger writing as Guido Fawkes. The blog claimed that the former News of the Worldand Daily Mirror editor may have turned a blind eye to phone hacking while heading the Mirror in 2002.
It dates back to a “scoop” that TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson was having an affair with England’s football team manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, which, Fawkes suggests, was the result of hacking into her phone — an allegation the Mirror has denied.
The tabloid’s showbiz reporter James “Scottie” Scott was “listening in to . . . Jonsson’s voicemails when he was flummoxed by messages in her native Swedish,” Fawkes wrote, adding that a Swedish-speaking secretary translated them. “Morgan decided to let ‘3AM girl’ Jessica Callan break the illegally obtained story under her byline in order to try and rid the column of its banal reputation.”
Whatever the source, it scored a bull’s eye. The scoop won a British Press Award, and the once-derided gossip section’s celebrity and notoriety spread.
So did Morgan’s. As Britain’s most famous newspaper editor, he wrote a sensational account of the U.K. tabloid industry, The Insider, containing a virtual blueprint for hacking into phones whose owners have not changed their standard security codes.
“Then,” Morgan wrote, “anyone can call your number and, if you don’t answer, tap in the standard four digit code to hear all your messages.” He added, archly, “I’ll change mine just in case, but it makes me wonder how many public figures and celebrities are aware of this little trick.”
The book also highlighted his working relationship at News of the World with his then deputy, Rebekah Brooks, who was arrested this week in the hacking scandal. Brooks, he said, had joined him in planning to pay 500,000 pounds for an interview with Princess Diana’s lover James Hewitt, if he admitted he had “regularly slept with the future king’s wife.”
This week the usually garrulous 45-year-old Morgan was silent on the current hacking scandal, but maintained innocence.
“It’s a really sad day for British journalism,” he lamented in a TV interview. “What went on was completely indefensible. I’ve only read what everyone else has read and I don’t think we’ve got to the bottom of it yet.”
Like many tabloidistas, Morgan has stepped on a lot of large toes during his British career. And although he also rubbed shoulders with top politicians, few would shed tears over his downfall.
So far the allegations remain in the realm of rumour. But if pressure builds, it won’t be the first time Morgan has landed in hot water, during a career with more ups and downs than a California surfer’s.
But his flamboyant style soon plunged him into controversy.
When he joined the Daily Mirror in 1995, he tangled with Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie, and infuriated the Royal Family by buying an expose from Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, then publishing letters between Diana and Hewitt.
In 2004, he was sacked after the paper published mocked-up photos of British soldiers apparently abusing an Iraqi prisoner: a gaffe the Mirror said was a “calculated and malicious hoax” at their expense.
Undeterred, Morgan tried his hand at reality TV, debuting with a children’s show, and graduating to a judge’s role in Britain’s Got Talent, where he helped to discover singer Susan Boyle. Back in the limelight, he replaced American icon Larry King on CNN, with ratings as turbulent as his career.
“Those days of Larry King softballing you . . . over baby,” said Oprah Winfrey in the daily Independent. “I had to take a hot bath and a couple Anacin after that interview. He’s a tough cookie.”
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